I am new to this forum, and the reason I joined in is that I think I had a lucid dream last night. It was a very powerful and unique experience, I daresay one of the most powerful and intriguing in my whole life.I went to bed after what was another ordinary evening, a night out with friends and very light drinking (I was driving). I was very sleepy when I went to bed, and had first one of those strange dreams were you "wake up" to find that you are still in a dream. Finding that I was still dreaming when I though I was awake was not comfortable, and I forced my self to wake up. I did wake up, but briefly (I don't think I even opened my eyes), only to slumber again into another dream. But in this new dream I had the sudden, acute realization that I was dreaming... I realized that things around me were a dream, and the people that were talking to me were not real and I had this sudden feeling of "empowerment" (sort of). I had this I idea that I might be able to control my dream, because it was a dream and it was MINE. At some point there was this dream character nagging/threatning me (I can no longer recall it), and I thought "this is a dream, I can make him disappear"... and I tried, but it was not very easy - I managed to push him back against a wall and then tried to turn him into dust, but did not quite... I could only make him "shrink" and suddenly it was no important anymore. At this point I was aware of the dream, but my perception was still somewhat fragmented and out of focus, like in regular dreams. The scene changed and I was in my apartment, only it was mostly empty and full of debris and rubble as if there were some major works going on. At this point I was sure that this was a dream, and my perception became more focused, I could look at individual objects and the space surrounding me in a much more clear way than it is usual within a normal dream. I began to wonder why my apartment was in such a state, was I selling it or.. ?... I walked towards the entrance door and found a lady whom I thought should be someone I was selling to or buying to - it is clear that my self was wavering between "accepting that I am dreaming" and "accepting the dream"... this lady was not the person who sold the apartment to me in the waking world, but I did not think about that in the dream.. but at the same time I knew that this was a dream and anything is possible. Then I asked her "Did I buy the apartment from you or did you buy it from me"... she seemed bit surprised and answered "I sold it to you, don't you remember?"... then I asked "How much did I pay?" and the most crazy thing happened, she replied with a date, something like "23-12-2014" and I immediately thought "I have to put the digits together to form the price, it's something like 200000€ (I got it wrong, it would be 23 MILLION €)... and then thought... hmm...200000 euros is expensive, I thought I'd payed less for it (in the waking world I did)... and realized that there was a new door in my apartment leading into a huge theater room.. and I thought "OK, that is why it is more expensive"... ... it is important to note that all these thought processes were much more intricate than it is usual in a dream.... and I was precisely aware of that and it made my feeling of being awake in the dream even stronger. Then the scene changed and that is were I became fully "awake" within the dream. I was in some unknown place, but I knew that it was my dreaming and felt like I was in an immersive virtual reality... for the first time in my life, dreaming was not a collection of fuzzy images that seem to evaporate when you tried focusing on them... I could observe my surroundings in detail, for instance noticing the quality of the light and colours, it looked like there was a greenish tint on everything... I thought "so THIS is what my dreams look like, when I can observe them in detail"... the sensation of being awake in the dream was so strong that I got really excited and felt that was living one of the most amazing experiences in my life. From time to time I thought about my body lying on the bed sleeping, and I knew exactly where I was in the waking world. But when I thought of this, it was almost like I was scratching the edge of the dream, almost waking up - I had to make an effort each time to keep dreaming. Then I met several characters and I told them very excitedly that I was dreaming and they were not real (I even apologized) but we could talk nevertheless. I noticed that some of them wore familiar faces, but when I looked at them in detail they sometimes waved and morphed between different people. The amazing thing was that I could look at these things in detail and even wonder what they meant in the dream. I felt like I was "opening the guts" of my subconscious brain, putting apart and examining my dream process. At some point I saw a few of my best friends, but they looked a lot younger (which made me think that this was a manifestation of my worries about getting old). My lucidity at this point can be demonstrated by this: I wondered how much younger my friends were in the dream, so I asked one of them "How old are you".... She replied "29"... then I thought, since she is 43 in the waking world, I am seeing people as if they were 14 years younger! There were other interesting observations and considerations on the nature of the dream and my perception of it which I can no longer recall, but at some point I started to feel cold in my back, and I saw a window open in the dream and I thought "this is a manifestation of my being cold in the real world, I forgot to put on a t-shirt, the bed cover is pulled off, and my room window is open. I will get a cold in the real world." .. So I began to worry about my real body getting cold, but still wanted to be in the dream a little while, so I kept fighting this feeling, but eventually decided it was wiser to wake up"... and I woke up, and was indeed a bit cold, though not as much as I was led to believe in the dream.

My question is: was this really a lucid dream, or just me dreaming very vividly that I was aware of the dream, and everything else? ... I am not even entirely sure that this question makes sense. No matter what it was, it was something amazing and unique!

That's all, I would like to hear some opinions on my (lucid?) dream (with apologies for bad English).

That was totally a lucid dream, and an amazing experience for a first time. You seem to have been progressing in leaps and bounds in just one single night!

It took me three different lucid dreams over a period of one year to go from things disappearing when I was focusing on them to the point where I was in a stable environment where I could focus on things and even look at them very close, and things were looking vivid and sparkly. In my fourth I also had the experience of somehow being aware that my body was in discomfort (even though I had no body awareness at the time) and I needed to wake up, and I tried to postpone this until the urge became more insistent.

I understand your enthusiasm, I felt like a fish living in a small bowl who had just found a way to jump out into the ocean, when I had my first lucid dreams. It is so thrilling to contemplate the possibility of exploring the unconscious vastness of our being!

I can relate to it all. False awakening at the beginning, skewed logic (with the price of the apartment), trying to solve the meaning of the dream in real time as it's happening, wondering how your real body is doing when you feel so 'distant' from it, and yet, must not think about it too much and stay grounded in the reality you are currently in for the time being. Even if there is a greenish tint, and things aren't quite the same as you're use to, it feels very 'real'!

Welcome to the club! I hope you get more. They really do open your mind don't they?